I avidly follow the hue and cry of the daily postings on this site that debate in vivd and personal detail the wrongs of our society. I'd like to stir the pot a bit with a personal experience.

Barbara and I have a 17 year old grandson,Roddy, a high school senior we dote upon. Some of you have seen him shoot ATA. He carrys straight A's including a 98 in honors physics and is signing his letter of intent to play college baseball next week. He's been taking a college English course at a local university and showed me one of his papers this afternoon since it was about a poem I really like.

It's "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats, mostly known for "things fall apart; the centre cannot hold ...". Roddy landed on "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionatew intensity". He asked, "Have we reached the level of corruption that awakened Yeats beast of stone?"

The Messiah predicted in all this was clearly Adolph Hitler, a Second coming that no one wanted.

Can it be we are at the same level of chaos that produced such disaster?

exploring earth and grass and boulders he wears the clouds about his shoulders.

On such a day the bouncing sun seems part of him and wind can run

no faster than his flying feet that challange colts or wade in wheat

or probe the little rivers by a pond that is inverted sky.

On such a day without a word of magic he is boy and bird and fish and butterfly and bee with summer his infinity. Sweet season forward in it's trend whose motion moves but has no end.

I hope every kid has one of those summers. Exploring and fishing and camping and having fun. Just as I did as a young kid. The poem was written by a fifteen year old girl in 63? I think . Her name was Bonnie May Malady I got it out of the Decatur Herald and Review when I was in the eighth grade. I hope you guys enjoy it also. Dan